Off the mark

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Jane Bianchini of Ambition says the first quarter was strong. Photo: Angela Brkic

The word out of Britain is that after three years of robust
growth, the bottom fell out of the IT contract jobs market in the
first quarter of this year. Several things are blamed, such as a
global economic downturn caused by soaring oil prices, the looming
British election and the old outsourcing bogey.

Meanwhile, denial is the order of the day in the recruitment
industry, which is pushing the line that the downturn is just a
blip and that companies are gearing up for post-Y2K overhauls.

The question for local IT workers is whether there is any
correlation with what is happening in the British market and the
Australian scene. The signals coming out of the local recruitment
industry appear mixed. According to a recent report from executive
search company E. L. Consult, the market is looking a little shaky
as a result of interest rate fears; with most new IT jobs being
driven by government projects. On the other hand, a chat with local
recruiters reveals very bullish sentiments, with all insisting that
the first quarter was a boomer for IT jobs.

Jane Bianchini, director of the technology division of
recruitment company Ambition, says the first quarter was very
strong, with most of the jobs coming in banking and finance,
construction and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

She says there may be a slight easing of the market this
quarter, but nothing to worry about.

"The vendor market is a little sluggish perhaps, but generally
this quarter should be a good one."

Daryl Keeley, director of Melbourne-based Macro Recruitment,
concurs, saying that January was strong.

"January was an amazing month for us - we got checked a bit in
February and March started to come up again," he says. "We got
checked again in early April but since then it has started to come
up again."

Mr Keeley says there is weakness in the market of low-level
development jobs in areas such as Visual Basic and C++.

"Some of that could be a function of the work going offshore,"
he says.

To make the matter unanimous, Vincent Teubler, principal of VTR
Recruitment, agrees that the whole market has picked up. According
to Mr Teubler, even the low end of the IT jobs space is seeing some
action.

"It seems to be spreading down . . . into the lower echelons,
including web development and e-commerce solutions," he says.
"However, it is still far too soon to be talking about skills
shortages."

Agentis' Argentina move

A little birdie tells us that 30 high-level IT development jobs
have moved offshore to, of all places, Argentina. The irony is that
Australia was the place where the jobs were created. Agentis
Software, founded in Australia in 2001 and subsequently bought out
by US venture capital money, lies at the centre of this tale.

Agentis, now a US company that markets a J2EE development
platform, traces its technology back to the Australian Artificial
Intelligence Institute and its management still includes some
Australians, including chief technology officer David Kinny, and
John Fields, Australian general manager and a vice-president. Mr
Fields says the departure of mainly J2EE Eclipse development jobs
is a result of the "unfortunate globalisation model".

"We are splitting the development between Australia and
Argentina, with 80 per cent or about 30 jobs going to Argentina,"
he says.

"Eleven of the core intellectual property developers will stay
here. I can assure you they have no intention of moving to Buenos
Aires. However, when it comes to J2EE programmer skill sets, you
can take your choice between China, India, Argentina and a lot of
other places. The cost of a J2EE programmer in Argentina is 25 per
cent of the cost in Australia. In effect, the company is saving
itself 80 per cent of its development costs."

The Agentis story is one that we are going to have to get used
to because we know of quite a few local software developers that
are pursuing a similar strategy. Many are setting up development
centres in India for their run-of-the-mill development work while
keeping their key developers on hand in Australia. The strategy
obviously works from a business standpoint but one wonders where
key developers are going to come from if there are no entry-level
jobs for them to gain experience.

Moving heads

SAP solutions provider Oxygen Business Solutions has announced
changes to its executive management team, creating two positions.
Stuart Dickinson, formerly Oxygen's general
manager of markets, has been appointed general manager - culture
and brand. Recruitment is under way for the position of general
manager - sales and customers.

Global consulting company BearingPoint has appointed
Charles Cochran as country leader for the
Australian business. Interim country leader Sumit
Chowdhury will remain as the Australian practice leader of
the communications, consumer, industrial and technology industry
group. Mr Cochran was previously the Asia-Pacific regional
vice-president in charge of the communications, content and
utilities industry group. Mr Cochran was also the COO of the
Japanese practice of BearingPoint from 2004.